East Stroudsburg man with cerebral palsy in need

Monday

Oct 29, 2007 at 12:10 AMOct 29, 2007 at 1:12 AM

Dan Ockenhouse, 32, of East Stroudsburg, doesn't let cerebral palsy stop him from doing what he wants to do. But to continue being productive and self-sufficient, Ockenhouse must rely on community support for a new scooter to replace his motorized wheelchair, which causes discomfort and limits body mobility.

ANDREW SCOTT

EAST STROUDSBURG — Dan Ockenhouse doesn't let cerebral palsy and the fact that he uses a wheelchair stop him from being as productive and self-sufficient as he can be.

Ockenhouse, 32, commutes back and forth via motorized wheelchair between his Normal Street home, near East Stroudsburg University, and the area Wal-Mart, where he has a job greeting customers.

"From my apartment, I can be at Wal-Mart in 15 minutes and in Stroudsburg in a half-hour," the outgoing amateur radio operator said, making the wheelchair zip along Normal Street with the flick of a switch. "This baby doesn't crawl."

Cerebral palsy forced Ockenhouse as a boy to get around by crawling on his hands and knees until he began using manual wheelchairs. He damaged his right shoulder and elbow while wheeling himself uphill, which made it harder to get around.

In 1991, during high school in Jim Thorpe, a physical therapist referred him to More Mobility in McAdoo, a company that distributes and repairs durable medical equipment. More Mobility gave Ockenhouse his first motorized wheelchair, geared for speed with adjustable wheels.

A visual impairment limited Ockenhouse's learning ability in school, but that didn't stop him from striving to be productive and independent. After moving to Monroe County in 1996, he lived in a Brodheadsville group home until the local Supportive Living program enabled him to eventually live on his own.

Since moving to the Poconos, Ockenhouse has made friends, partly through his job as a Wal-Mart greeter. In 1999, with the help of community donations, he got his first scooter, which has more features and allows for greater body mobility in the seat than does a motorized wheelchair.

"In a wheelchair, my body is locked into one position," he said. "I get stiff and uncomfortable very quickly. In a scooter, I can move around more and stretch a little."

But by 2001, Ockenhouse found himself in need of a new scooter because repair costs on the old one had mounted to thousands of dollars, money that could have gone toward buying a replacement.

Neighbors again came together and got him a longer-lasting scooter, a Bruno model.

In 2004, further community efforts, including an East Stroudsburg Elks Club benefit featuring local singer, songwriter and producer Randy Bigness, helped Ockenhouse get a new motorized Arrow model wheelchair.

This gave him a backup means of transportation, which now has become his only means with his scooter permanently out of service.

Years of outdoor use has exposed the scooter's electronic system to extensive weather damage. A new scooter will cost more than $5,000.

"I don't get disability because the state doesn't consider me disabled, since I work more than 20 hours a week," Ockenhouse said. "I've had to pay for all my wheelchair and scooter repairs myself. The state won't pay for anything because the equipment I use isn't considered 'bare bones' enough to qualify as something a disabled person would use."

Over the years, Ockenhouse has had a lot of help from More Mobility, owned and operated by Al Mertz, himself a wheelchair user due to a motor vehicle accident.

More Mobility has performed repairs for Ockenhouse and provided transportation for him when he's been stuck.

"They're available to me 24/7," he said. "No other company would do what they've done for me."

Mertz says Social Security Administration regulations for the most part are antiquated and ineffective in helping the disabled.

So, Ockenhouse once again will have to rely on kind, sympathetic people in the community. He's not one to complain or look for handouts, but simply wants to continue being as self-sufficient as possible.

"I don't like to tell people how uncomfortable and painful it is for me having to be in a wheelchair as opposed to a scooter," he said. "People look at me and think I'm OK, but they're not in a chair. You don't really know what it's like unless you're in this situation."

Consumer advocate Harold Cameron of Scranton, who has known Ockenhouse for years, is trying to set up a fund at a local bank so that the community can send in donations to help Ockenhouse buy a new scooter. Cameron can be reached at (570) 341-6796.